Marc Doty On The Future Of Buchla

Ahead of the 2018 NAMM Show, Buchla U.S.A. announced that it has purchased historic synthesizer company Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments (BEMI).

The company, originally founded by Don Buchla in the mid-1960s (as Buchla and Associates), is under new management and now headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and headed by CEO Eric Fox.

We talked with synth guru and historian Marc Doty at the NAMM Show about the future of Buchla. Doty is best known for his work with The Bob Moog Foundation and his Youtube synth demos, but is now working as product specialist and historian for Buchla U.S.A.

While it’s too early for the company to talk about plans for new products, Doty told us about the key things that the company is focusing on in 2018, and his personal excitement in digging into Buchla’s instruments and history.

If there’s a way of getting Buchla product out for less than the high end price it currently carries, it would help the company future. Dropping features (the e part of the modules) or making modules less function dense (many uses for each module) makes the product less Buchla. Where do you pitch the savings? De Buchla enough to reach a price point and Don turns in his grave but a version of the company survives. The h modules won’t get you a complete synth. Not made in sunny California or wherever?